Fluoro snot
by Sherlock River Hekate
Summary: In the middle of the night, Spiderman comes to the Sanctum. He doesn't need help, but in his friendly neighbourhood Spiderman way he has found someone who does. A few interesting things are found when the patient actually arrives at the Sanctum. Doesn't centre around Spiderman but he is there. Dr Strane/ OFC


"Hngk." Emily woke from sleep with an incomprehensible groan. Blinking a couple of times, she tried to work out why exactly she had woken up. Then she heard it. An insistent tapping, on what sounded like an upstirs window.  
Carefully she exhausted herself from Stephen's arms, trying her hardest not to wake him. (He had just gotten to bed and had fallen asleep exactly a minute after his head touched the pillow.) Throwing on a dressing gown and running a hand through her hair, Emily exited the bedroom and went in search of the noise.

It didn't take her long. Sticking to one of the upstairs windows was a red and blue silhouette. Shaking her head, Emily opened the window and Spiderman tumbled gracefully in.  
Standing back up, Spiderman pulled the mask off his face and shook his hair out.  
"Not that I don't love seeing you," Emily looked at him, "But what are you doing here at this time of the night, morning. This time of the morning?"  
Emily could admit that she's not the most fluent at past midnight when she'd just been woken up.  
Just as Peter was about to answer, they heard footsteps and the Sorcerer Supreme came into view; dressed in sleep pants, a loose grey t-shirt and the Cloak of Levitation. Stephen took one look at the teenager by their window and gestured towards one of the sitting rooms.

Peter sat comfortably on an armchair, a herbal blend of tea clutched in his hands.  
"So, I heard this kid crying and siting outside in the dark. Went over to take a look. And yea, as I got closer I thought this was more your area than mine, and you'd probably have more luck than the hospital." Peter shrugged. "I found a business card of yours. Didn't know I even had one in the pockets on my suit. Didn't know you have business cards, Doctor Strange. They look cool though. The plain beige card and just your name and address and Sorcerer Supreme. Very mystical."  
"Interesting how you always find one when you need it, "Doctor Strange raised his eyebrow with a small smile. "What did you do with the business card?" He could see that Peter was going off on a tangent.  
"Oh yea. I quietly slipped it into the boy's jumper. Would have stopped to talk a bit but a lady came out of the hospital in scrubs and was walking towards the kid."  
Stephen nodded slowly.  
"What makes you think this was our sort of thing?" Emily asked.  
"His nose was running, but it was like fluoro green snot. Definitely the colour of my highlighters. And when I got a look at him crying, it was orange. Like a burnt orange, so I reckon the doctors thought it was blood, but it was definitely more orange than red."  
Emily grimaced and Stephen ran a hand though over his face.  
"That does sound more mystical than medical," Stephen agreed.  
"Just out of interest, which hospital?" Emily asked.  
"Oh, oh umm," Peter ran a hand nervously through his hair. "Metro – general."  
This time Stephen grimaced. "Let's hope the parents find that card and bring him here before my former colleagues do something stupid."  
" Though, I could always ring Christine if I haven't heard anything by nightfall," he added as an afterthought.  
After a moment, Emily remembered what the time was. "Why are you still out, Peter? The protocols say you should have been home nearly two hours ago."  
"Aunt May is out of town, so my curfew is extended by an hour. And then I was getting here from the hospital. And the protocols kinda, pause?, while I'm in here." Peter explained. "I figured I should probably let you know about the fluoro snot child, so yea. I came over."  
"Well, thank you for that," Stephen nodded at him.  
"I'm guessing the protocols 'unpause' when you leave here?" Emily asked.  
Peter nodded.  
"So you'd like a quick way home?"  
Again, Peter nodded. "Not to Queens though. Staying with Tony, at the tower. Could you…?" he waved his hands in a circle.  
Emily laughed and looked at Stephen. "I didn't grab my sling ring when I got up."  
The Sorcerer Supreme rolled his eyes but formed a portal.  
"See you later, Peter," he said as the boy stepped though, then closed the portal.  
"This is why you'll never be Sorcerer Supreme," Stephen told Emily as they walked back to their bedroom. "Leaving your sling ring behind in the middle of the night."  
"No, I'll never be Sorcerer Supreme because that's your title and I intend you to still be by my side when I'm old and grey." She replied.  
They slipped back into bed and Emily curled into Stephen's side as he pressed a kiss to her temple.  
"That sounds like a good plan," Stephen whispered as they fell back asleep.

It wasn't until about early afternoon that there was a knock on the front door to the Sanctum. Judging by the swiftness and intensity of the knocks, someone in need had found the front door to 177A Bleecker Street, and was desperately hoping the inhabitants could help.  
Stephen was in the library, reading up on something and Wong was out, so Emily made her way to the front door. She swung the door open to be greeted by two people on the step. A man in his mid-40s with light brown hair and a round face, and a child of about 10. The boy had orange stains on his face that resembled tear tracks and his nose, despite a wad of tissues, was running with fluorescent green snot. As Emily beckoned the father and son in, she got a better look at the man. That was when she realised she knew him.  
They had settled into the sitting area Stephen preferred when accepting visitors or clients, and Emily was about to address the pair, when the Sorcerer Supreme entered the room, took one look at the visitor, and then sighed.  
"Nick, it's been a while."  
"It has, Stephen. I'm hoping you can help."

Doctor Nicodemus West looked across at Emily as Stephen took a seat.  
"Forgive me, but you look familiar." He said.  
"I worked in the pathology lab at Metro General. My name's Emily." She replied. More of her attention was on the boy than his father.  
"Sorry for not recognising you earlier," Nick commented. "You used to assist in the ER a lot."  
"Nice as these pleasantries are, could we address the real season you are here?" Stephen looked directly at West.  
"Yes. Right. This is my son, Matt. He was fine until a week ago. Then he started having a bit of a runny nose. Nothing unusual, kids get sick. But after three days I noticed the colour, but I still thought it was just a bad infection. I tried to pretend it was just really green, not fluoro. But then another couple of days passed and the snot got worse and more green. And when he cried, it was blood! I took him to the hospital and we ran tests but it all came back normal. Everything, normal. This morning I found this card in Matt's jumper and it had your name and this address on it."  
He held the business card that Peter had placed in Matt's jumper out to Stephen.  
"I'll admit, I was sceptical. You were a good surgeon, but no one had heard from you since the accident. But I talked to Christine and she said that if anyone could help Matt, it'd be you with your quote 'weird cult stuff'".  
Stephen groaned. "She actually said 'weird cult stuff'?"  
Nick nodded with a small smile. "I can see what she means." He told the sorcerer gesturing to his tunic and cloak.  
"It's not a cult, its, oh never mind."  
"Christine's right, thought. This isn't anything medical, as such." Emily told them, walking over to Matt.  
"Stephen, why don't you and Nick head to the kitchen. Make a cup of tea. Try and explain some of all this to him while I talk with Matt?"  
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Stephen lead the other doctor to the kitchen.

"Hey Matt," she said gently. "I know your dad just explained to use what happened. But do you think you could answer some questions for me in your words?"  
The boy nodded.  
"Alright. So, firstly, what happens if you take those tissues away?"  
"It just keeps running," Matt said nasally, taking his hand and the tissues away from his face. And he was right. The moment the tissues were removed, fluorescent green snot poured of the boy's nose. Through a portal, Emily sourced a bin and a box of tissues, which she placed next to the chair. Matt put the used tissues in the bin and grabbed new ones, thanking her quietly.  
"Right. So ,what about the tears? I can see that they're orange, not red, so don't worry. It's not blood."  
Some of the tension eased out of the kid's shoulders and the look of fear in his eyes lessened slightly.  
"Do they water on their own, or just when you cry? Which is perfectly okay, cause all off this is scary."  
"They water sometimes too," Matt mumbled. "Just a little bit, and when I sneeze."  
Emily nodded. "And one last thing. Can I have a look at your eyes?"  
He looked at her curiously, but nodded. She looked at the whites, the eyelids and the irises quickly then pressed her lips together.  
"I'm really sorry for this, Matt. But I need to take some blood. Would that be okay?"  
The poor boy tensed up at her words, then let out a violent sneeze and sagged.  
"Okay," he acquiesced miserably, holding his left arm out for her.  
Out of another portal appeared a black bag filled with phlebotomy equipment. (That she'd taken the bag from Nick's own room was not important, but convenient all the same). Working quickly she clipped the tourniquet in place, found a vein and placed gloves on, all while talking to Matt. As she got the needle ready, Emily conjured a few blue butterflies with her free hand and directed his attention towards them. When she was sure Matt was sufficiently distracted, she quickly put the needle in the vein and allowed a tube to fill. Then, she quickly removed the needle and placed a band aid on the site.  
"There you go, all done." Emily smiled at Matt as the butterflies landed on his knee. The shock of the blood test caught up to him and slowly orange tears began leaking out of his eyes.  
"Oh, I'm sorry," Emily told him softly. "Do you want me to go get your dad?"  
When Matt nodded and hiccupped a small 'yes', she stood, test tube in hand, and went to the kitchen.

Both doctors were leaning against the kitchen bench when Emily strode into the room. Nick searched her face, looking for answers while Stephen raised his eyebrow at her. She held up the vial of blood.  
"I need to look at this under the microscope," she said before turning to look straight at Nick. "And you need to go comfort your son. I can assure you, it is not blood he is crying."  
Nick looked at her, nodded, then placed his cup down, picked up another and rushed from the room.  
"Hot chocolate for the boy," Stephen answered her unasked question, then bent to retrieve the microscope from under the sink.  
"What are your thoughts?" he asked her.  
"Well, runny nose, watery eyes, he was a little warm to the touch. I'm thinking interdimensional cold, or some form of weird hay fever. The microscope will tell me more."  
Swiftly Emily made up a slide and spent a minute or two looking through the eyepiece before standing and letting Stephen see.  
"It looks like hay fever to me," Stephen replied. "But until I know from which dimension, it'll be difficult to clear it from his system."  
"Why don't we go and ask?"  
"Ask? They didn't even know this was mystic, let alone which dimension it might have come from!"  
Emily laughed. "No wonder you became a specialist. Don't ask direct questions. Oh, just let me ask. You'd have never survived general practise."  
They walked back into the sitting room, bickering lightly.  
Nick and Matt were sitting together, now on the couch. Matt was curled into his father's side, holding a now empty cup. Or, at least Emily hoped it was empty, otherwise it had emptied itself onto the couch.  
"Nick, does Matt normally have hay fever?"  
The boy's father looked up at them, thinking. "Not the text book definition, but there are flowers that make him sneeze."  
Stephen nodded, then thought for a moment.  
"Was there anything that happened out of the ordinary the day before Matt was sick?"  
Nick shook his head, and Emily rolled her eyes.  
"Matt, what did you do the day before you started feeling sick?"  
The young boy looked at his dad and then at the two sorcerers.  
"Well, dad made French toast for breakfast. And then we went for a walk and we went to the market. And we bought some fruit and some veggies and went home." He finished. Then, "Oh, we bought those pretty yellow flowers for mamma! They smelled so nice and they were so YELLOW! Remember those, dad?"  
Nick nodded, and Stephen and Emily shared a look. That could definitely be the cause of the mystical hay fever.  
"Do you still have those flowers?" Emily asked gently.  
Nick shook his head. "They wilted a few days ago and my wife threw them out."  
Stephen pinched the bridge of his nose.  
"Well, that's going to make this more difficult."  
Emily tilted her head to the side and looked into the distance. She was trying to sort through the different options to now find the source dimension.  
"Stephen," Emily said quietly. "How familiar are you with using your third eye?"  
"I can do it, but I don't do it routinely." He admitted.  
"I think it might be the quickest way to trace the origin."  
"You're thinking of using the pollen still in the boy to trace the origin dimension?"  
Emily nodded, looking over at both West's who were trying to follow the conversation.  
"What do you need us to do?" Nick asked.

At that moment the door opened and Wong called out. Emily rose and went to fill him in. A few moments later, they both came into the room.  
"You're really going follow the trace to its origin, with your third eye?" Wong asked Stephen.  
"Yes. I thought that would be the best option." Stephen told him.  
Wong rolled his eyes. "Emily suggested it, didn't she? I know you, Stephen, you hate using your third eye."  
"Yes. However, I trust her. And I agree, this will be the easiest way now that the flowers are able to be used."  
Wong nodded. He looked around the room, then back at Stephen.  
"On the floor. I'm not picking you up when you fall."  
Emily moved to the couch where Nick and Matt were still sitting.  
"You don't need to do anything. Sitting still will be helpful, but if you have to sneeze or something, it won't matter." She told them.  
Emily sat on the floor, but turned towards Stephen.  
He lay on the floor, the Cloak hovering next to him, and Wong standing beside him. Then there was a subtle shift in the air and Emily could see the change on energy at Stephen's third eye. A few moments later, the air cleared and Stephen sat up with a gasp.  
"Oh good, you did it," Wong said flatly. He did, however, help to pull Stephen to his feet.  
"Next time I go to do that, remind me how motion sick it makes me," Stephen groaned as he stood up.  
"Did it work?" Matt asked. "Can you make me better?"  
Stephen nodded. "Yes. Now that I know which dimension the flowers have come from, I can negate the energy."  
For the first time since he walked in, Matt smiled.  
Stephen turned to Wong and Emily.  
"I'm going to need some additional support. Possibly not both of you." Stephen trailed off,  
"I'll help," Wong told him. "Emily can sit with the child."  
Emily rose and sat next to Matt, on the other side to Nick, and conjured more butterflies to distract the boy. As she did that, Stephen and Wong started a few spells, different colours winding themselves around Matt. A yellow smoke started rising off of Matt's skin and when he saw that, his eyes widened and Emily could see that he was beginning to panic. More butterflies appeared, circling around his head and resting on his hands. That was enough to calm the boy down and allow Stephen and Wong to finish the process.

When it was done, Stephen let out a breath and Emily went to his side. He was shaking a little bit, but smiling.  
"How are you feeling now?" Stephen asked Matt.  
The child paused for a moment, assessing how he felt. "My nose isn't running. I can take the tissues away and there isn't snot everywhere!"  
Nick looked at his boy, then back at Stephen.  
"I don't know how you did it, but thank you," he told the sorcerer.  
"You're welcome," Stephen replied. "This is what I do. And what I've always done. I help people."  
"I know," Nick said quietly. "You always did, didn't you. I'm just glad I found that card of yours."  
At that, Emily smiled and looked at Stephen, who nodded barely perceptibly.  
"You can thank your friendly neighbourhood Spiderman for that card," she told them.  
"I will, definitely," Nick smiled.  
"Spiderman! I didn't even see him," Matt frowned.  
"Maybe he will swing by in a few days to check on you," Emily suggested, making a mental not to tell Peter.  
"Is there anything else we need to do?" Nick asked, helping Matt stand up from the couch.  
"No," Stephen replied. "Matt should be fine now."  
After thanking the sorcerers once more, the West's left.

That night, well before curfew, Spiderman dropped by the Sanctum.  
"Did fluoro snot boy come by today?" He asked.  
"Yes he did," Stephen told him. "And he was the child of one of my close colleagues."  
"Oh…" Peter said slowly. "I'm sorry."  
Emily laughed. "Don't be, the boy really did need our help."  
"So what was it in the end?"  
"Interdimensional hay fever," Emily smiled slightly.  
"That's a thing? You're not messing with me?" Peter asked in alarm.  
"Not messing with you," Stephen assured him. "Which reminds me, I need to look into the supplier and how they got those flowers."  
"Tomorrow, Stephen," Emily said. "You've used plenty of energy today. I think it's time you rest."  
"I'm not tired," Stephen argued, sounding very much like a five year old.  
"I'll make it worth your while," Emily commented.  
"Aaaaand that's my cue to leave," Peter said with wide eyes. "I'll see you later. Bye Doctor Strange, bye Emily." With that Peter pulled his mask back on his face and flipped out the window.  
Despite what he was saying earlier, Stephen fell asleep quite quickly in the end.


End file.
